X'Hoffryn Halloween
by tohonomike
Summary: What's in a costume? What's in a name? Xander and the Slayer Line find out...
1. Chapter 1

_**X'Hoffryn - YAHF**_

_Author: Tohonomike _ _Disclaimer: All characters belong to their rightful owners…Joss/Mutant Enemy. No money is involved. None are mine._

D'Hoffryn faced D'Hoffryn; neither seemed different from the other at first, but next to one was the debris leading from a now-burning costume shop across town. The newly-arrived D'Hoffryn smiled.

"Finally, something different," it mused.

"Indeed," smiled the other. "Shall we stroll or teleport?"

"Stroll, I think. Rarely do we have a moment of holiday."

"Too true," the former Xander Harris responded. "And I seem to have an annoying but persistent niggling in the back of my consciousness."

"No doubt from the energy of Janus I smell. It must have struck you."

"Hmm, impetuous godling isn't he? I thought he knew better than to challenge the Lord of Arashmahaar."

"Well my twin, here we are. Shall we use the door to enter, or the large burning whole in the wall?"

"The door, we are civilized—unlike the lesser beings roaming around this dimension."

"True, and it's getting harder and harder to keep up with the insane number of variants that develop."

"Too true, and the quality of recruit hasn't been the same."

"Also true," the original Demon Lord sighed as they found an unconscious Ethan Rayne on the floor of his store. He waved his hand slightly, reviving the man completely. "Up, little worm. We have questions."

"What, how, who?" the Chaos mage shakily responded as he stood and noticed twin demons. "You both look like a costume I sold earlier today."

Twin raised eyebrows were his response.

"But…I only sold one, and the spell…" he looked where the bust used to be and saw the back room had suffered the loss of a wall in the direction the statue had been facing. "The spell shouldn't have done that."

The twin Lords of Vengeance exchanged a look, the true D'Hoffryn speaking to his new twin.

"Now that we're this close, you seem to carry the sent of Chaos much more strongly on you, brother."

"I agree," it replied, and closing its eyes seemed to breathe deeply. It looked at Ethan. "Call on your god, little man."

Ethan at once fell to the floor from the strength of power leaking all over the room. He chanted, but unlike earlier, could not begin to feel any connection to his god.

'I cannot feel him!'

'As I thought,' the being grimaced, then vocally turned to his brother. "It seems the annoying voice that's merged at last into me, was a mortal who helps a Slayer. I, I have a soul."

"Well, I won't hold it against you, brother," the original Demon Lord jested. "But as powerful as you are, now that the magic settles, you seem to be limited to only this and a few connected dimensions of them all. But it won't do for me to have a reputation as being souled."

"You could give me these dimensions."

"Happy birthday, brother. I'm taking my girls with me, so you'll have to find your own."

"Hmm, thank you, brother. But without followers, I'll have to retake a form more closely linked to my followers."

"How about Slayers as followers? You already know one. Simply displace the demonic energy with your own."

"I don't desire female form."

A throat cleared from the floor, and they saw Ethan was still there, prostrating himself.

"My Lords, since I don't seem to have a deity any more, would my changing allegiance allow you to keep male form?"

"You've just saved yourself," both Demon Lords smiled. 'Xander' nodded.

"Do you accept me as liege and master?"

"Yes."

Xander resumed a very studly version of his mortal form.. D'Hoffryn cleared his throat and handed over what seemed to be a Lochaber axe. Xander smiled.

"Thank you, brother. I guess a do need a symbol with which to establish connection. A connection to the potential Slayers."

"Well, I should be going," the original said. "I don't want to tax your power too much before you've settled in, but I'll have the dimensions sealed in a few minutes."

"Thank you, brother. Feel free to stop in for coffee some time."

"I shall, brother. And good luck."

They watched as the original Lord D'Hoffryn disappeared. Xander looked at Ethan.

"Well, Ethan. Off to the Hellmouth, I have Slayers to bind to me."

"Shall we take my car?"

Xander waved his hand, and they appeared on the Hellmouth, in the Sunnydale High School Library. Buffy, Willow, and Giles leapt back in shock at the suddenness of the new arrivals. And a rental car Ethan had let.

'Not what I expected,' Ethan mused in regards to the car, 'but quite funny.'

"Xander?!" Buffy asked, amazed at the muscled version of her friend, as Giles gasped at seeing his old friend, then spat in a very un-Giles manner.

"Ethan!"

"My Lord…" the mage began, moving to hide behind his new master.

"Giles," Xander warned, and Giles found himself halting involuntarily. Buffy felt Power and looked around before realizing it was Xander. Xander with a big weapon that almost sang to her. She watched as her friend slammed the butt of the weapon on the floor, and collapsed as she felt something change inside of her and she lost consciousness.

"Oops," Xander grimaced and seemed to briefly show exhaustion until energy seemed to flow into him from the Hellmouth. He wrinkled his nose, and holding out a hand, seemed to eject black dust onto the floor. "Yuck, that was gross. I didn't realize filtering out the evil from the energy would feel like that."

"You're not evil?" Giles asked with some disbelief from where he was helping Buffy into a chair. "What did you do to her?"

"Huh? Oh, I replaced the demon essence in the Slayer line with my own…not-committed essence."

"Not committed?" Willow asked fearfully from also helping a recovering Buffy. "What does that mean?"

"The energies and essence of Janus converted me into the Lord of a Demon Dimension. Since the energy is divine, and I'm not truly of a demon dimension, I'm me. Soul and Free Will with lots of power if I can remember how to use it."

"What was the 'oops' then, My Lord," Ethan asked.

"Oh, I just activated all of the Potential Slayers within a few thousand miles."

"Good Lord! How many?"

Xander concentrated a moment.

"I feel one hundred and thirty-five over the age of thirteen."

"Good Lord," Giles muttered. "How many under thirteen?"

"None. Children are unaffected."

"Thirteen seems young."

"Not in the original Slayer time." He concentrated again. "There."

"What did you do, Xander?"

"I tuned them down so nothing will notice them, and they won't break anything."

"Good Lord."

Buffy stood, shaking her head in disbelief.

"I can't sense you, Xander."

"That's because I echo the essence inside you now, Buff."

"My Lord," Ethan asked. "What shall I call you?"

"X'Hoffryn," he told him. He looked to his friends. "But my friends can still call me Xander."


	2. Chapter 2

_**XHoffryn Follow-Up Part**_

_Author: Tohonomike _ _Disclaimer: All characters belong to their rightful owners…Joss/Mutant Enemy. No money is involved. None are mine._

Xander thought about his odd status of the last week, and wondered what he should be doing. He'd sent Ethan off on errands that'd keep him busy for a week or two. After swatting aside that annoying Egg-On demon, Xander had found Ethan quite happy with his new status of vassal.

He'd accidentally Activated well over a hundred Potentials as Slayers, but with most of them asleep, his subsequent toning done of Power to within very healthy human norms kept any from suffering. For a week, he'd taken his free time to check on each one, spending half an hour to an hour seeing if any would be better off approached about a Willing Destiny.

He was figuring out a schedule, and juggling school, time with friends and maybe getting a part-time job, and fitting names into his day planner to start checking on the rest of them, when the Potential closest to a Source of Power radiated great frustration and fear and anger.

.Xander invisibly visited Janet Frasier, and found himself disbelieving the whole Hathor Situation. Xander considered ending the Snakes, at least on this planet, when a group of white energy squids, Ascended Beings, showed up.

and threaten to stop him—he isn't the real D'Hoffryn after all. Oma Desala tells him he can work through his 'champions' however.

"And if a Goa'uld threatened me?"

"Against that one, you could act. But the nature of your Power and Soul are such that your restrictions are on the way you act. And keep in mind that the host survives, even though it may have been driven mad or into a hibernative state."

"I'm connected to many Potentials…"

"And they may act for you should you desire to Activate them."

"Ah. What are the consequences of my doing something and your group not telling me in advance it isn't in the rules?"

"None. In most cases we will arrive and speak to you in That Moment. But in those few, we will let you know not to repeat the Action."

"And if I don't agree?"

"We will haunt and surround you until you agree, preventing you from doing anything. I can assure you, it would be frustratingly annoying for one such as yourself who cares what happens to people."

"For now, I'll try it your way. But I won't let the world end or anything."

Oma and the others exchanged looks, and she responded for them.

"Fair enough."

The Squid Dudes disappeared, and Xander teleported himself to Janet Frasier, using the motif of a door of light through which he stepped into the cell. All but the doctor were frozen in the temporal fold.

"Hello Doctor Frasier."

"Who are you? What have you done to the others?"

"Nothing. We're, in between moments. I wondered if you're ready to be strong?"

"What are you talking about? And you still haven't told me who you are."

"I'm…hmm, how to describe it. I'm the inter-dimensional patron of a rare female minority who carry a certain supernaturally-established set of genetic markers."

"Name?"

"Only to those who accept my patronage," he told her seriously. "Those who accept it, will not have the easiest of lives, but will have the Calling to fight the darkness—the inter-dimensional races known as demons, most specifically those blood demons named vampires in many dimensions."

"Excuse me? Vampires?"

"This world is older than even Doctor Jackson knows it—at one time this Earth and many other worlds in this galactic cluster were battlefields between an ancient race of humanoids, and the demons. The last of the Old Ones, imprisoned in Cold Iron and Technology, where a second of existence is dilated into fifty billion years, had begun to feed on one of these First Humans suffering from a demonic-initiated plague. Such was the evolutionary potential of these First Ones to 'Ascend' into the next plane of existence on their own, that this odd convergence of Circumstance, that vampires came into existence. But it was several hundreds of thousands of years before the demon hybrid was released from under the rubble of that Hellmouth location. Too weak to overcome its first Second and Third Human preys living adjacent to each as tribes, it fed off them but bled from its many wounds such that it infected Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon at the same time. This first vampire, Amara, left something behind I will not reveal to you at this time, and which currently is safe from the demons. But two vampire species were born, those inspiring today's tales, and another known as Turok-Han."

Janet held up her hand, Xander stopping. She seemed confused.

"Am I one of these women?"

"Yes, and since you're in a bit of a situation, I'm allowed to 'Activate' your Potential."

"I hear capital letters."

"Yes, you do. And I'm almost done with the basic intro."

"Go on, then."

"Okay. Anyway, some Shaman types way back when decided to create a warrior to counter the vampires, so they chose a female to balance the 'male' vampires. And for other cultural reasons I don't agree with. Using their magic, and yes magic exists and no I'm not going to tell you about it, they took the essence of a similar blood demon that feeds on the demon spirits brought in to replace the souls of the now-dead."

"I thought the Old demon infected it."

"Yeah, but that was just the physical part. Since this was a magic-inter-dimensional energy exchange thing, the 'turning' actually calls a demon to replace the human."

"Like a Goa'uld." she mused, then looked horrified at her breach of security.

"I know about the Snake problem you have. Anyway. The demon moves in, and because the body had memory in it, what you get is the truly evil bestial version of the person you knew. Much stronger and faster. They will try to suck dry their friends and family. If you accept my offer, you will be expected to dust any vampires you come across."

"How many of 'us' are there?"

"You would be the third active Slayer."

"But you made it sound like vampires are everywhere."

"The Shaman guys were only human, so the magic could only Call one Slayer at a time, and when she died, then another would become Slayer. Usually in their teens. Their short lives sucked bad, and no I'm not responsible. I just co-opted the situation. I give a choice if I can…I need at least one active or the Line is lost. So I'm checking up on everybody, then planning to offer the best candidates a chance to make a difference."

"I'm not a teenager, and that fight until death for someone so young seems really wrong."

"Calling teenage girls? I guess it was to keep from kids losing their moms. But, yeah. The magic guys did what they knew, but nobody's really thought about trying to do anything since."

"Why don't you fight instead?"

"I'm not allowed, by Other Powers. I think it's like the Prime Directive on Star Trek, but since I'm not threatened directly, I can't respond directly."

"How old ARE you?"

"Seventeen."

"You're joking."

"Nope. I won't tell you how this happened, but I've only been doing this a week or so."

"Oh."

"Sorry I'm not exactly a god, or even a poser like the snakes…"

"It's almost reassuring. Almost. So you're human?"

"Not sure anymore. But I was born human."

"This dimension?"

"Not telling."

"Can I think about this?"

"Yeah, but I can't have you telling everyone about me or the Slayers until you're active. That would be the one thing I will impose on you—an incapability to communicate this entire meeting."

"But I'll still know?"

"Yeah and if you never call on me to activate you, probably will never see me again. Though with what you do, if one of the others goes active and has to fight something here, you might."

"How will I contact you?"

He handed her a necklace.

"Put this on. Should you ever need to contact me, yell 'Xander' and if I'm not stopping an apocalypse, or in the shower, I'll be here ASAP."

"This, this is odd. If I do this, what happens?"

"You get incredible healing, the strength of ten men, blinding speed. That sort of thing. And since you're already over twenty-five, you won't age any more."

"Really?"

"Yeah, but you and demons can sense each other. You might be able to sense the Snakes, but I haven't thought about it. Well, good luck with the whole Hathor thing, Janet Frasier."

She watched as he turned and left. And time restarted.

**January 1998**

Janet was worried. They hadn't been able to locate Colonel O'Neill or Sam on any of the worlds Daniel thought they might have redirected to, and General Hammond seemed ready to call off the search within the next hour if the remaining team didn't bring them in. She realized she was absent-mindedly fingering the necklace and thought about the strange moment back in November. It was late in the evening, and she decided to give it a try. Walking into the currently vacant gym, she closed the doors and loudly shouted out his name.

"Xander?!"

"Not so loud," a voice almost-whined behind her. She let out an 'eep' as he was only wearing a pair of swim trunks. "Huh? I was swimming."

"It's night out!"

"Not in Fiji, it isn't," he deadpanned. "So, you called?"

"Could you?" she began, and waved a hand at him.

"Take my trunks off?" he smiled flirtatiously.

"No! Put more on!"

Shaking his head he suddenly was wearing a straw hat with a band that matched the trunks. She glared, he sighed, and a particularly painful pink and brown Hawaiian shirt appeared on him, unbuttoned.

"Enough?"

"Yes…"

"So, how ya been?"

"I have a favor to ask."

"Uh huh?"

"Two of our people are lost."

"And you're ready to 'Go Active' in exchange for my help?"

"What are the conditions?"

"You can keep your life, but you'll be expected to train for and kill off the demons in your area."

"That's it?"

"Well, if there's an end of world scenario going, you might be yanked from whatever you're doing to help save everybody. But if you're in the same kind of sitch, you can call me, and I'll get who we can here or wherever to help you."

"I'd have to tell my superiors."

"Nope, that would be me. Your oath to the US of A is yours. And I won't do anything but make you keep mum about me and your new status."

"But someone will notice if I save lives and am all super-girl?"

"Yeah, true. Hmm, I could put your General under the same controls I've had you under. Who are the ones you want me to save?"

"Two of our best team, one is my friend, and the other is the base second in command."

"How big a team?"

"Four."

"Could you feel comfortable in limiting this only to them, and only if needed?"

"I believe so."

"Then WHEN you're discovered, and not before, call me…mentally shouting, not verbally will be fine then. And I'll show up. And I like steak, ribs, food. So over a dinner at someplace you can freely talk would be best. If an emergency, your general's briefing room will do. Leave the three chairs at the end across from the general for me and two others."

Janet nodded, but he wanted to make sure as the Scythe appeared in his hand.

"Are you sure you are ready to be strong?"

"I'm sure."

In a flash, she felt whoozy, then recovered to find herself feeling really energetic, but Xander gone.

"So, how ya two doing?" Xander asked two very cold USAF officers in Antarctica. "Need any help?"

Jack, borderline mental from pain and cold, grimaced and decided to talk to his illusion.

"Been better, actually. Arm hurts a bit, and I'm used to slightly warmer weather."

Carter sat up.

"Sir? There really IS someone here."

"Oh. Well, my statement stands." He looked at Xander, "Think you could get us back to Earth?"

"You're on Earth."

"That's impossible," Carter began, only to have Xander shake his head.

"You. Are. On. Earth. But when you use the ring thingy, you dial yourself, and get a busy signal. You want a lift back to your base?"

"MacMurdo?"

"I was thinking your SGC, myself. But if you'd rather explain how you got there?"

"No…the SGC will be fine."

Xander waved his hand, and the two appeared in the Gate Room, their benefactor no where to be seen. A moment later, when Janet and the medical team showed up, Xander quietly waved from his seat atop the Gate. Only she could see him. She gawked a moment when he blew her a kiss and faded away.


End file.
